Ballots to remain uncounted in MI and Stein blocked in Philly. Guest: Election integrity, law expert Paul Lehto says this proves 'only option is to get it right on Election Night'. Also: Trump taps climate denier, fossil-fuel tool for EPA...

A lawsuit has grown out of alleged breaches in security procedures around electronic voting machines in San Diego County after a hotly contested congressional election, throwing a spotlight on the reliability of the machines themselves.

The suit, filed on Monday, requests that a special election on June 6 to fill the 50th Congressional District seat be invalidated. It also seeks a complete hand recount of the paper ballots, said Paul Lehto, an Everett, Wash.-based attorney handling the case. The suit was filed in Superior Court in San Diego and names Mikel Haas, county registrar of voters, and Brian Bilbray, the winner of the seat, as defendants.

Whatever the specific merits of the suit, it could heighten some citizens' concerns about e-voting technology if critics' claims of the inherent security deficiencies get debated in court during the run-up to the fall elections.

One of the main points raised by the suit is the so-called sleepover policy, under which Haas directed that all the machines be released to poll worker supervisors before the election. These sleepovers lasted from three days to more than a week.

"During these sleepovers, the voting machines were unsecured, subject to access by innumerable neighbors, strangers and family members, and stored without records or proof of actual chain of custody, eliminating the ability of any person to detect whether or not fraud or improper access to the voting machines occurred," according to the lawsuit.

"The sleepover issue is fairly egregious," said Lehto. Tampering with one card in one device conceivably could change race results.
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This lawsuit is an example of what could happen in upcoming contests, said Brad Friedman, who covers e-voting issues in his blog. "Is this the sort of thing we want to see happen in 435 House races, 33 Senate races and 20-something gubernatorial races around the country on Nov. 7 this year?" said Friedman.

I sent James Miller this reply. I wonder if he will be able to figure out which party can not be trusted.

“It's in everyone's interest to have fair elections, but raising the specter of fraud or error might serve candidates in races against incumbents they can't beat, said Jim Coffield, chairman of the Volusia County Republican Executive Committee.”

If that were true the solution to verified elections would be very simple. It would not even have to include paper ballots or hand counting. If fair elections were in everyone’s interest we could have a computer give each voter a uniquely numbered receipt of the selections they made. Another copy would be kept sealed by each precinct in case a recount was needed. The voter could check to see that both receipts were correct before leaving the polling place. Because of there ability to memorize precisely the computers could be easily programmed to create for publication on the web or elsewhere a sequentially numbered list of the selections of all voters in each precinct. If it could be shown that less then 99.9% of those numbered receipts were counted correctly the receipts kept by the precinct would become the ballots of record. The company that was contracted to count the vote would be responsible for the cost of a hand recount of those receipts. After all it was their machines that failed to perform anywhere near up to their ability in the original count. Couple this with measures that prevent extra ballots from being submitted and you have the first truly verified election ever conducted in this country.

Unfortunately our election guidelines are being adjusted in a manner to make fraud easier to commit, while at the same time making verification much more difficult. Could it be that fair elections are not in everyone’s interest? It doesn’t take a Rhodes Scalar to figure out which party fair elections favor. When almost every position favored by one party attempts to make verifying that your vote is being counted as cast, that is clearly the party that does not have fair elections among their interests. That sure won't stop them from claining that they are interested in fair elections.

10: Brian Bilbray (CA-50) is a long-time supporter of the corruption on the Marianas Islands. He spent New Year's on the Islands with Dana Rohrabacher and Jack Abramoff. Bilbray's pet immigration project, to deny US Citizenship to children born to two immigrant parents was enthusiastically supported by the sweatshop owners and human traffickers of Saipan. (It is hard to exploit, buy and sell US Citizens and their parents; on the other hand with the CNMI system of guest workers exploitation is easy). It is time for Francine Busby to hit Bilbray hard on his ties to Abramoff and the crimes on the Marianas Islands. Brian needs the full Ralph Reed treatment.